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Reviews
Caligola (1979)
Interesting to watch once.
Caligula was, without question, one of the single most insane emperors (along with Nero and Commodus) to have ever ruled the Roman Empire. This movie, at it's heart, intends to capture the full extent of his insanity and just how much debauchery, sexual deviancy, and all round nuttiness of his brief, yet notable reign.
The good sides to this film that is it's setting, costume, and realism in a lot of situations. But on the down side, there ARE a lot of historic errors. For example, in some cases they show Caligula's insanity as it was, but in others they seem far off the mark. The real Caligula didn't start out a complete nutjob, and during the first two years of his reign, he was actually quite popular, having removed a lot of unpopular laws that were set up by Tiberius, and people described him as a noble and good ruler... but it was in the last two years (he only ruled four years total) is when all the crazy stuff started to happen in the film.
For one thing, Macro was not executed by having his head chopped off in a dramatic manner (as cool as it looked), he committed suicide. Caligula's famous 'I wish all Rome had just one neck' quote resulted from when he got ticked off by the complaining of the people when he couldn't constantly outperform his performance at showing off chariot and gladiator games every single day, not a random thing he said after having a lot of people put to death. Also Caligula really did try to conquer Britain (though his successor was the one who fully pulled it off), and annexed Mauritania. The battle shown of him attacking a river to simulate an invasion of Britain was really simply an act of 'revenge' against Neptune (he once built a giant 'bridge' from Italy to Sicily that was made in faux city style with fake taverns and such, and it was destroyed by a hurricane, so Caligula swore revenge against Neptune). And finally, the password he spoke to Cassius Chaerea before being killed by him was not 'scrotum', some sources say it was 'old man's petticoat' or such. During his final days, Caligula gave stupid and humiliating words to be used as passwords such as 'kiss me soldier' and the like.
I understand the intention of the filmmakers to really show off his insanity by exaggerating some of the issues involved. Overall, the film was not really that much of movie. It's no epic, and definitely not a documentary. The story really wasn't all too captivating, the characters aren't spectacularly done, and other than seeing the costumes, architecture, and other interesting and thought provoking sets and concepts being put up (not to mention the fact that they didn't hide the Roman's pro-homosexual/bisexual tendencies or even tone them down. Points for that!), this movie has no real redeeming factor other than seeing the depravity of some of Ancient Rome's most insane and whacked out emperors.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993)
So much potential and originality.
To briefly explain the show, this was about a post-apocalyptic group of people, surviving after a disaster that happened several hundred years before the show's timeline. They never actually mention what that disaster or event was explicitly, but only provide tiny snips of it to tease the audience, leaving them all wondering just WHAT happened and, more importantly, where did all those dinosaurs come from? The animation quality was top-notched and the voice acting was very well done, and the characters were very likable and believable to boot. Despite the usual action scenes that are found in all shows, there's nothing really fantasy-like or too 'out there' by any of the characters on the show.
Which brings up the best points of the show... it wasn't a show about weird adventures, it wasn't slapstick comedy, it didn't have a hero who was so good and heroic that he glows awesome wherever he walks and causes people to cheer out in frenzy every time he says something. Nor did it have any bona fide villains either. Most shows then and now would have a villain who's so evil you'd think he was the devil's incarnate or is practically oozing with slime and sin... as well as having the motivation of 'just being evil'. Jack Tenrec is a mechanic who believes that nature needs to be considered when doing any kind of development or action, and delivers this message, both in words and style, exactly how a person would do it in RL. He the good guy, but rarely does anything that's too unbelievable or fantasy like to be dismissed. His relationship with Hanna, a diplomat and scientist from another 'tribe' is also similar to some love-hate relationships that occur in RL (minus any real abuse, of course). He's flawed, does and says stupid things.
What about the opposition? There are two main enemies that are frequently brought up, the governor of the City, Scharnhorst, a group of poachers, and some other one-time bad guys. So what's going on with these guys? The poachers are precisely that, poachers, they hunt illegally and sell the stuff on the black market for profit... and that's it. They hate Jack because he constantly foils their work. Nothing like a cartoon norm, they act precisely like poachers in RL with the same motivations and the same reasons to hate the hero as real poachers hate the guys who stop them. The relationship between Scharnhorst and Jack is, IMHO, the single most maturely done hero-villain relationship that was ever shown in a cartoon series. Scharnhorst is NOT a vile, evil mistress that wants to kill all kittens, enslave the people, and whip them day and night for the heck of it. She's just an bigot who has beliefs contrary to Tanrec and is less ethical than him. Again, how people in Real Life would push their agenda against whatever possible consequences it might have, take credit for other people's work, and try to legally humiliate and do away with the people they hate? Too many to count, and Scharnhorst is just that. She isn't always the ultimate bad guy, is even willing to negotiate and even HELP Jack at times because they would both benefit from it, and adheres to the law of the city even she doesn't like it at times (putting crooks who tried to bust on Jack, for example, in jail in one episode). So Jack and Scharnhorst tread a thin line as opposed to being like Duke Igthron and the Gummi Bears.
There are some flaws in the show, but nothing that isn't present in any other post-apocalyptic setting. For example, how did the cars manage to survive for over 600 years or so without decaying down into nothingness? Or the ruins still containing something usable after being neglected for that long? Naturally I'm not being fair when I say these things, and this is a general problem and not a specific one to the cartoon.
It was a pity it only lasted 13 episodes, yet even with just 13 they still managed to portray a very, very richly detailed world with a huge amount of potential. Sadly, however, despite the shows great animation, great characters, and original ideas, it never got the chance it deserved to make television history.
Felix Gets the Can (1925)
An interesting short
In this movie, Felix is trying to catch some fish, but not only did they not bite his bait, they actually outsmart him and end up eating every worm in his can without him noticing until it is too late. After various frustration and attempts at getting fish else where, and going to Alaska on a sled pulled by hotdogs(!) and trying to catch more fish, Felix ends up being caught himself in a fisherman's net and gets canned in a cannery, afterwards he winds up back home in a restaurant where he's opened up and served.
This short is, like many other Felix the cat movies, a very entertaining bit of work, other than the typical talking signs, one thing that I found interesting was that the part where he got several hotdogs to pull his sled, a funny little play on the 'dogs' part, don't you think? A very good short over all, not the best, but still good.
Felix the Ghost Breaker (1923)
Felix at it again!
Another interesting Felix short. Felix is trying to get some sleep in a graveyard (which he believes is the 'ideal' resting place) and then a ghost starts to pop up and frighten him. Felix at first thinks he's seeing things as the ghost has a tendency to suddenly disappear. Felix realizes that it's a ghost and then follows him around as he scares people all over the town and haunts an old man's house, where Felix tries to get him out. The ending is pretty illogical considering what happened throughout the short, but it's Felix I guess, things are never normal when he's around! So that's the summary of it.
This short definitely has some interesting effects in regard's to the ghost appearing and disappearing suddenly, as well as the scene where he frightens the old man. It definitely creates an atmosphere of eerie frightfulness even better than some ghost flicks today and even the simple acts of just suddenly popping out of nowhere has a tendency to cause me to jump ever so slightly, a thing that never happened to me even when I watch modern horror movies that are full of gore and special effects. Two thumbs way up for our silent cat star!
Felix Lends a Hand (1922)
They don't make em' like they used to
My first silent Felix the cat cartoon. I was curious to see a silent cartoon, especially one before the days of Mickey Mouse. Naturally I had to watch a few of these classic Felix the cat cartoons in order to satisfy my curiosity. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed by what I saw, the cartoon has some interesting twists and the unmistakable surreal style of the original Felix the cat (before he was downgraded into a simple 'funny animal in the mid-30's) and an interesting ending definitely make it worth while to watch.
The plot is fairly simple: Felix is walking through the snow filled streets of town until he comes across a billboard advertising to people Egypt as a tourist destination. He claims that he'd 'give up four of his lives just to be there' as it is far warmer than where he was. He then walks over to Abdul Ahmad's Persian rug store and enters it after hearing him cry. Abdul says that his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a sheik in Egypt and he's crying over it. Felix then takes a magic carpet that was lying there in his store (using a magic word that I couldn't understand) and takes off for Egypt. What happens next? Well! Go watch the movie, can't spoil everything for you ya know!